U.S. Congressman Ross Meets With Florida Chamber Members Mitigation Discussions Will Help Keep Families Safe, Florida Competitive
U.S. Congressman Dennis Ross (R-Lakeland) met with members of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and policy leaders in Orlando Wednesday to discuss important insurance related issues facing Floridians.
Fresh from insurance talks at the Florida Chamber’s multi-day Insurance Summit, Steve Weinstein, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of RenaissanceRe, hosted the meeting, which covered topics such as property insurance, transferring risk to the private market, and how to empower Floridians to invest in their safety.
After briefing attendees, Mr. Weinstein praised Rep. Ross for his leadership on insurance and mitigation issues, including his pioneering Disaster Savings Accounts Act, which would allow homeowners to contribute up to $5,000 annually to be used for fortifying or rebuilding residential properties in the event of a natural disaster. By placing mitigation in the hands of homeowner, the Florida Chamber believes Florida families would be kept safe from the inevitable next storm while reducing the economic cost of disasters in our state and across the nation.
“Representative Ross’s innovative idea would empower homeowners and families to invest in their own safety, with the mitigation features that provide the highest returns for their location and home type.” said Mr. Weinstein.
“One common thread joins all of us across the nation and that’s the unexpected risk posed to our families and communities when a natural disaster strikes,” said Rep. Ross. “It’s important that we incentivize Americans to build a safety net in the event of personal catastrophic losses from high-cost disasters like floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. The [Disaster Savings Accounts] DSA Act is a common-sense, proactive solution that will help keep families safe, their property protected and will give Floridians and all Americans more control of their money.”
The nationally recognized, Florida-based Institute of Business and Home Safety has estimated that every dollar invested in mitigation yields four to seven times that amount in savings. Similarly, the Multihazard Mitigation Council showed that each dollar spent on mitigation saves society an average of four dollars, with positive benefit-cost ratios for all hazard types studied.
“The favorable return on investment from Congressman Ross’ bill is clear,” said David Hart, Executive Vice President of the Florida Chamber of Commerce in an opinion editorial released in support of Rep. Ross’s act. “It supports real-world safety improvements while also contributing to Florida’s economy through construction-related home safety improvements.”
Meet With Policy Makers In Person:
Join us in Tallahassee on March 4-6, 2015, to listen to and meet with Florida’s most influential elected officials, policy experts and business leaders at the Florida Chamber Board of Governors Capitol Days event.
